Ken Feinberg is expected to step down later this summer as special master for executive compensation under the federal bailout program. 

Feinberg, who oversees the payment system under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, will take over the $20 billion BP claims fund he was appointed last week to oversee, a Treasury Department official told CNBC this afternoon. 

BP executives and the Obama administration met last week at the White House to hash out the fund that will pay claims to businesses and individuals affected by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. 

Feinberg oversaw the distribution of funds to the families of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks and those killed during the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. 

As early as next week, General Motors is expected to file a detailed proposal outlining its planned initial public stock offering to reduce the federal government's nearly 61 percent stake in the company, according to news reports Wednesday afternoon. 

The Initial Public Offering (IPO), which could happen before the November elections, could raise between $10 billion to $20 billion, allowing the automaker to become a publicly traded company again with the sale of about 20 percent of government-owned stock, possibly around 300 million shares. 

GM is likely to sell off all of the government's stake over a number of years, according to company officials. 

The filing with federal securities regulators could happen in July or August, setting up the IPO for about two months or so afterward. 

The Treasury Department used $43 billion of its $50 billion loan to buy a 60.8 percent stake in the company. GM repaid the other $7 billion in April. 

Congress's inability to extend the so-called "doc fix," which describes a delay in Medicare payment cuts to physicians, has forced AARP to call on states to address the issue as doctors refuse to treat Medicare patients. 

Jim Wordelman, State Director for AARP Idaho, has urged his state's congressional delegation to immediately pass legislation fixing the 21 percent physician pay cut until Congress extends the relief currently included in the so-called tax extenders bill.  

As the names begin bouncing around for who might take over as the nation's budget chief, one lawmaker has a few suggestions of his own. 

House Budget Committee Chairman John Spratt (D-S.C.) told The Hill that he would like to see Rob Nabors, Gene Sperling or Stan Collender replace the departing Peter Orszag as head of the White House's Office of Management and Budget. 

Orszag announced this week that he will depart in July. 

Nabors served as the chief of staff for the House Appropriations Committee before taking over as deputy director at OMB. He now is a senior advisor to Rahm Emanuel, White House chief of staff. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has postponed action on the so-called tax extenders bill until 6 p.m. Originally, he wanted to be moving the bill at 4:30 p.m. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Wednesday said he hopes to move a third iteration of the so-called tax extenders bill at around 4:30 this afternoon. 

"We thought we would be ready to do the procedural votes to get to that a couple of hours ago," Reid said. "But as things happened around here, there have been some things requested by a number of senators, and as a result of that, we're going to have to go back to Joint Tax to get some more numbers. That's probably going to take an hour."

More than 14,000 taxpayers wrongly received nearly $27 million in homebuyer tax credits to prop up the sluggish market, according to a government report. 

Nearly 1,300 of those taxpayers were locked up in prison — 241 serving life sentences — and received more than $9 million in fraudulent claims, according to a report released Wednesday by J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration.

"Last year, we learned that children and persons who did not purchase homes were fraudulently claiming the first-time homebuyer credit," said Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), chairman of the House Ways and Means oversight subcommittee. "Although I am pleased that the fraud identified earlier does not continue, I am concerned about prisoners claiming the credit."

Not only were multiple claims allowed — 67 claims alone for one home — $17.6 million in claims totaling 2,555 people were allowed for homes purchased before the law went into effect.

The homebuyer tax credit has spurred more than 2.5 million new home purchases during the recession and the fraudulent claims are a small number compared with the total, assistant Treasury Secretary Michael Mundaca said in a statement sent to The Hill. 

"These fraudulent claims, which are being pursued to the fullest extent of the law, represent less than half a percent of the credits paid out under this program," Mundaca said. "As with all new and expanded programs, we are constantly working to improve implementation, and the IRS has already begun to take additional steps to prevent fraud in this program.”

Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday kept short-term interest rates near zero, saying they continue to expect that economic conditions will "warrant exceptionally low levels of the federal funds rate for an extended period."

The Federal Open Market Committee, the policy-making arm of the central bank, said "financial conditions have become less supportive of economic growth on balance, largely reflecting developments abroad." 

The Fed didn't specifically mention Europe but it's clear the debt problems of several nations, especially Greece, and the need for a $1 trillion bailout there have caused concerns in worldwide stock markets. 

Although the economy has been growing for nearly a year, there are renewed concerns of a "double-dip" recession because of high levels of unemployment and a sluggish housing market. 

The Federal Reserve chairman has said he thinks the nation is climbing out of the recession and won't lose ground. 

A meeting between Senate Finance Committee staffers and business lobbyists on the so-called tax extenders bill apparently did not go well, according to several sources. 

Lobbyists were divided over what they were willing to give up: tax increases on foreign income or not extending tax breaks like the research and development credit. 

Staffers tried to sway their support for the bill by postponing the effective dates on some of the tax increases. The suggestion was not well received by lobbyists.